(10 of 10)
The second and more optimistic prospect is that Socialist Mario Soares could form a working alliance with Ernesto Melo Antunes, Foreign Minister in the outgoing government, and other sophisticated moderate officers in the M.F.A. In light of recent political events, this scenario is barely credible, but it envisions Scares and the moderates convincing a majority of uncommitted officers in the M.F.A. that they must, for the nation's sake, respect the political feelings of the majority of Portuguese. To do this, Soares would have to define and present a realistic economic and social program and have the courage to mobilize the mass of nonradical Portuguese in support of it. Says one hopeful European diplomat in Lisbon: "As the economy slides and as the regime's lack of authority becomes more evident, the moment could arrive." If and when it does come, it could be the only chance that Portugal's revolution has of accomplishing something other than merely exchanging one dictatorship for another.